The next several months will bring author commentaries on all six stories contained within the Tales from Portents collection. My hope is to offer insight into the decisions made in putting the project together and the challenges therein. It’s also fun to point out the little Easter eggs throughout. (I love that crap.) So, SPOILER WARNING is in effect for the duration.
Connecting Factors
It was important for me to filter little threads that tied events in the collection together. I mentioned this previous when discussing the use of Robert Standish as a connecting factor. For me, short story collections tend to fall flat in that they have no impact compared to the full length installments.
I wanted to break that trend by connecting seemingly disparate events. Some are simple, a character that shows up consistently.
Others were more subtle.
Chaac and the Storm
When I was developing the collection the original idea was to offer a free story to fit prior to Signs of Portents. (What eventually became Resurrectionists… sort of…) This seemingly simple plan turned into two stories told concurrently.
One for Loren. One for Soriya.
Eyes in the Storm and The Consultant.
If I wrote about one it was important to write about the other. Two equal partners to the story. Balance.
I decided to take it further and make the connection between the two clear, to tie them in a way to show they occur at the exact same moment in time for these two characters.
Hence the storm.
Building that bridge through subtle references in The Consultant, including the end of the storm in the final chapter of Soriya’s story, kept the two main players in the series connected in a way during their separation.
Both need each other, something they need to be constantly reminded of, during the series. This was a nice way to keep them part of the same world, even if all Loren wants to do is escape it.
Evolution of the references
This connecting factor didn’t exist in the original drafts. Chaac was very much a part of Eyes from the start. He was the device used to pull Loren back into the insanity that tends to follow anything Portents related. But The Consultant had no reference to the storm.
Except for one line.
When Soriya is hanging outside the apartment of the first victim it mentions the spitting rain. An annoyance and nothing more.
From that little nugget I went through the entire story to filter more references to the rain and its unsuspected nature. When it ends Soriya is elated, the same smile she wears whenever Loren returns to her world. That was my way to keep them tied together.
Their partnership has become the cornerstone of the series and something that should be explored with each story. I was surprised by the sudden connection and completely overjoyed it was able to come together in the way it did.
I hope you felt the same.
Next time:
One last connecting factor and then the mother of all tales; Resurrectionists!
Thanks for reading.
There is such a thing as getting too comfortable with a series. Too formulaic. Too stuck in one mode of thinking. Every chance I get to create a new tale in the world of Greystone is a chance to tell something new and I am very much aware of the been there, done that factor.